Carton blank



Feb. 24,1970 J. HARVEY 3,497,128

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1 U02@ @RWC/Uwe@ United States Patent O 3,497,128 CARTON BLANK James R. Harvey, Rittman, Ohio, assgnor to Packaging Corporation of America, Evanston, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Filed Jan. 31, 1968, Ser. No. 701,993 Int. Cl. B65d 5/18 U.S. Cl. 229-33 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A blank of foldable sheet material for forming a carton having a reticular panel wherein the panel has cut lines defining a large number of closely spaced waste pieces each retained in the blank by a pair of nicks, with the nicks uniformly arranged and aligned to facilitate removal of the waste pieces.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application pertains to improvements in blanks for forming cartons such as those disclosed in the copending application of Robert J. Hickin, Ser. No. 609,258, filed Jan. 13, 1967.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention relates to carton blanks and particularly to blanks for forming cartons having one or more reticular panels.

yDescription of the prior art The formation of a foldable carton having a reticular panel requires removing a large percentage of the material of that panel, usually in a relatively intricate pattern, by cutting and removing a large number of so-called waste pieces. For instance, in forming a carton as described in the aforementioned application for use in an air filter element, a large number of closely spaced holes are formed in the front and back panels to provide panels for retaining and sustaining the filter medium, with minimum resistance to the free passage of air therethrough.

As is well known in the art of manufacturing paperboard boxes or cartons, the blanks are normally formed from large sheets of paperboard by rst cutting and creasing the sheet in a pattern appropriate to the desired blank. In this first step, small nicks are left along each cut line to retain the various components intact and thereby to preserve adequate integrity of the sheets for removal of all components from the cutting and creasing mechanism for transfer to subsequent operation stations. Thereafter the waste pieces must be removed or stripped from the sheet to leave the desired blank. A number of stripper methods and machines are known for performing this operation on conventional blanks.

However, particular problems are encountered in stripping waste pieces from blanks for forming reticular panels of the type noted above. The removal of a large number of relatively small Waste pieces from each blank poses problems of effectively engaging each piece to be removed and of insuring severance of each nick to insure removal of all pieces. For instance, one problem which is encountered is that of hinging, i.e., the severance of only one nick on a small waste piece whereby the piece simply pivots out of the path of the removal device, and remains attached to the blank by another nick. Such pieces create problems in further processing of the blanks and must vbe removed by another operation.

3,497,128 Patented Feb. 24, 1970 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of this invention to provide an improved carton blank of the type described above which will facilitate the rapid, economical and certain removal of a large number of waste pieces.

In general, the foregoing object of this invention is obtained by providing a die-cut blank of foldable sheet material including a section having cut-lines defining a large number of closely spaced waste pieces to be removed for forming a reticular panel, each of said waste pieces being retained in said blank by a pair of angularly disposed nicks joining such Waste piece to said blank, and said nicks of each of said pieces being oriented in the same position relative to the periphery of the respective waste piece and relative to said blank as the nicks of the remaining waste pieces whereby said nicks of said waste pieces are uniformly arranged and aligned.

For a more complete understanding of this invention, reference should now be had to the embodiment illustrated in greater detail in the accompanying drawings and described below `by way of an example of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a partial plan view of a carton blank employing teachings of this invention, and

FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of a portion of the blank of FIG. l.

DESCRIPTION Referring now to the drawings, there is illustrated a sheet 10 of foldable sheet material, such as paperboard, which has been cut and scored to provide an improved carton blank 12. The blank 12 is designed to provide a seal end carton frame member to receive and retain therein a filtering medium, as disclosed in the aforementioned application.

Blank 12 is defined in outline by cut lines 14, 16, 18 and 20. Cut lines 22, 24, 26 and 28 and crease or score lines 30, 32, 34, 36 and 38 define the various aps and panels of the blank. The narrow strips 40, 42, 44 and 46 around the periphery of the blank 12 represent waste material which temporarily remains secured to the blank by appropriate nicks, as indicated at 48, but which subsequently is stripped away. While a single blank 12 is illustrated being formed from a sheet 10, it will be appreciated that a plurality of such blanks may be formed from a single sheet of appropriate size or from a continuous sheet or web of appropriate material.

Blank 12 includes two large panels 50 and 52 for forming the top and lbottom panels of a filter frame member. Each of the panels 50 and 52 is provided with a large number of closely spaced generally circular cut lines S4 each of which defines a circular waste piece 56 to be stripped from the blank. When the waste pieces 56 are removed, each of the panels 50 and 52 becomes an apertured or reticular panel comprising only a narrow imperforate marginal portion 58 and a network of interconnected portions 60 extending between and defining the apertures. For instance, in one commercial blank for use in an air filter, the waste pieces 56, and thus the apertures, are about 11/2" in diameter and each of the portions 60 is about 1/8 wide at its narrowest portion.

The various waste pieces may be stripped from the blank by passing the blank through the nip of appropriate stripper roller apparatus whereby each waste piece is punched, torn or otherwise removed from the blank. To facilitate stripping of the pieces 56, they are arranged in parallel rows (extending from the top tothe bottom of the figure in the drawing), it being contemplated that the sheet 10 preferably will be passed through stripper apparatus in a direction parallel to these rows.

Each of the waste pieces S6 is temporarily retained in the blank 10 by a pair of nicks 62, i.e., narrow bits or nicks of material which are not severed along the respective line 54. It will be appreciated that the width of nicks 48 and 62 are exaggerated in the drawings herein for purposes of illustration, such nicks normally being of a width on the order of 1/32, or even less. By way of example, such nicks are often provided for simply by nicking the cutting edge of the respective metal cutting rule with a le or a grinder.

In the improved blank 12, the nicks 62 of each waste piece 56 are disposed on diametrically opposite sides of the respective waste piece and are aligned normal to an axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the blank, i.e., the intended direction or axis of feed of sheet 10 through a stripper. This provides each of the nicks in a predetermined position, with all of the nicks of a row of pieces S6 aligned in two rows extending longitudinally of the blank, to facilitate appropriate engagement of each of the pieces 56 and to facilitate severance of each nick toward reliable removal of all pieces.

It will be obvious that other modications of the specific embodiment shown may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention. For example, the cut lines may define waste pieces of other configurations for other designs of the resulting apertures, and such cut lines may be disposed for concomitantly varied arrangements of the openings.

It will thus be seen that an improved blank of the indicated type has been provided wherein the Inicks are aligned and arranged to facilitate rapid, economical and certain removal of the large number of waste pieces.

While a particular embodiment of this invention is illustrated and described herein, it will be understood of course that the invention is not to be limited thereto since many modifications may be made by those skilled in the art, particularly in light of the foregoing teachings.

I claim:

1. A die-cut blank of foldable sheet material including a pair of broad panels and a plurality of panels foldably joinedto said broad panels for forming a seal end carton with said broad panels in spaced registered relation when set up, a substantial portion of at least one of said broad panels `being provided with cut lines defining removable small waste pieces of like configuration distributed thereover in a plurality of rows, each row comprising a plurality of closely spaced waste pieces, said waste pieces upon being removed from said blank forming apertures through said one panel, whereby the remaining interstitial portions of said panel, between said cut lines, form an open reticular structure, each waste piece being retained in said blank by nicks disposed in the same angular position relative to the periphery of said blank.

2. A die-cut blank as in claim 1 wherein said waste pieces are arranged in closely spaced parallel rows, the corresponding nicks of said waste pieces in each of said rows being aligned.

3. A die-cut blank as in claim 1 wherein each of said waste pieces is retained only by a pair of nicks disposed on opposite sides thereof.

4. A die-cut blank as in claim 1 wherein a substantial portion of each of said broad panels is provided with cut lines defining removable waste pieces as recited in claim 1.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,781,529 11/ 1930 Shulman.

2,118,271 5 /193 8 Slayter.

2,138,874 12/1938 Myers.

2,587,003 2/ 1952 Shina.

2,808,191 10/ 1957 Cramer 206-72 XR 3,395,792 8/ 1968 Larson 229-55 XR DAVIS T. MOORHEAD, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. -493 

